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2008, 10-21 Study Session MinutesMayor Munson called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and welcomed everyone to the meeting. Present: Councilmembers: Rich Munson, Mayor Dick Denenny, Deputy Mayor Rose Dempsey, Councilmember Bill Gothmann, Councilmember Gary Schimmels, Councilmember Steve Taylor, Councilmember Diana Wilhite, Councilmember MIN UTES CiTY OF SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Staff: Dave Mercier, City Manager Cary Driskell, Deputy City Attorney Ken Thompson, Finance Director Neil Kersten, Public Works Director Kathy McClung, Community Development Dir. Mike Stone, Parks & Rec Director Scott Kuhta, Senior Planner Rick VanLeuven, Police Chief Mike Thompson, Fire Chief John Whitehead, HR Manager Morgan Koudelka, Sr. Administrative Analyst Lori Barlow, Associate Planner Carolbelle Branch, Public Information Officer Greg Bingaman, IT Specialist Carrie Acosta, Deputy City Clerk ACTION ITEMS: 1. Motion Consideration: Authorize Budget for Law Enforcement Assessment — Dave Mercier It was moved by Deputy Mayor Denenny and seconded, to authorize a budget of 579,500 for the Assessment of Law Enforcement Services presented by ICMA Consulting and authorize the City Manager to finalize and execute a contract for such services. Mayor Munson invited Sheriff Knezovich to speak on the proposed assessment. Sheriff Knezovich said there are aspects to the proposal that are current trends in law enforcement nationwide. He said the proposal indicates detectives are primarily reactive; however, Intelligence Led Policing (ILP) is more proactive. He said the focus of law enforcement should be proactive rather than reactive in going after those causing the crimes. He said best practice departments look at proactive ways to handle calls. He said an example was bringing Crime Check back to the region taking the burden of response off patrol officers which is typically a significantly higher cost if officers respond rather than a report taken. He said in 2004 there were 43,000 reports taken by Crime Check and in 2007 there were 21,000. He said with the return of Crime Check we will know what kinds of crimes are taking place and be better able to direct assets to respond to those crimes and be able to handle those issues in a more proactive way. He said community support is a critical element as stated in the ICMA proposal. The SCOPE office is our community oriented policing and is staffed by volunteers whot make the jobs of the police officers easier. He said SCOPE is a nationally recognized community oriented policing model and Chief VanLeuven was recognized for bringing this model to Spokane County. He said the Valley Storefront is another proactive crime reduction element and is another way to reach out to the community. Sheriff Knezovich said the use of crime data to develop short and long terns strategic initiatives is the way law enforcement is headed. He said the need for intelligence and data to help develop strategic and tactical plans for the community will be used to decide what the resources are and how many resources we have. He said the sheriff's office began looking at this in the summer of 2007 and started plans to Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Page 1 of 8 Approved by Council: 11-18-08 move toward ILP. He said they formed a steering committee and they developed PRISM to find true crime data. Eighteen months ago he issued a challenge to his research department to find a better model that does not have a 30 day lag time. He said it is important to understand the nature of crime trends and he hopes Council understands data driven policing is not just about the numbers but goes into greater detail. He said the initial agency training started in the spring of 2008 and he is looking for sustainable grant funding. He said the most important aspect will be to reestablish their link with SCOPE and that not all SCOPE stations have wireless capability which is necessary for some of these programs. He said in his opinion the foundation for the ICMA proposal leans heavily toward the iLP model. He said this is not a one -time fix but a commitment toward intelligence and data led policing and he said we all have to be committed to it. Sheriff Knezovich mentioned the accomplishments of the regional gang task force and receiving the gang unit of the year award in 2007. He said as soon as crime is occurring they are picking up the criminals. He said armed robberies are typically solved within 72 hours and homicides are typically solved within two weeks. He said they have already seen increases in crime data and it will only get worse unless they focus on proactively going after criminals. He said another accomplishment is the disruption of an organized crime syndicate transporting meth to the Spokane area. Other accomplishments include the implementation of an evacuation plan for the County in 2007 and their training unit that provides regional in- service training to North Idaho and the entire Spokane region at no charge as well as providing national and international training for a cost of $30 annually. He said officers here are receiving more training, more often and of higher quality than in the last 15 years with any other agency and he said it was recognized as one of the best training units in the state. Sheriff Knezovich said data without proper analysis means very little and we need to have somebody who is trained to analyze the data. He said an analysis showed twenty-three traffic fatalities in 2007. They took it upon themselves to reduce that number and in 2008 there have only been eight fatalities. Officers have written more tickets and they started a traffic re- education course that has been very successful. He said last fall they developed expectations and performance measures for officers. He said performance measures need to be qualitative quid quantitative in nature and they need to determine the baseline standards. He said the main goal of performance standards should be to reduce crime and improve customer satisfaction and that the true measurement of successful policing is the absence of crime. He said citizen support is key to any crime reduction effort and without their support the policing models will not succeed. Sheriff Knezovich said Stan McNutt said it is in the best interest of Spokane Valley to maintain the contracting partnership with the County Sheriff because of the high cost of policing. He said currently Spokane County is ranked second in the state in crime reduction and he will be interested to see the ranking after Crime Check is back in place. He said in his opinion very little weight was given to Councilmember Gothmann's study. He said he thought the prior proposal leaned toward Spokane Valley breaking away from the County Sheriff for policing and that led to his concerns. He said his ability to maintain the regional task force and other task forces depend on partnerships and more cities are going toward metropolitan style policing because they see the economy of scale. He said the County's concern has been about the politically motivated ideas behind the study and the cost of the review. He said the study is not out of line and that to do this type of study the cost is easily around 550,000. He said he supports the study if the intention is to work together and if' it makes the working relationship between Spokane Valley and the County Sheriff's office stronger. He said it can not be one - sided, that the Sheriff's office needs to have input and tJie study needs to give information as a region, and that the Sheriff's office needs to be given the opportunity to implement any suggested changes. Councilmember Gothmann asked what the present schedule is for bringing Crime Check back. Sheriff Knezovich said it is still on track for January 2008 1:20091 and is contingent on the hired personnel passing their training. Councilmember Gothmann asked if County deputies are trained at the Spokane Police Academy, how much training do the deputies get each year and how the training is based. Sheriff Knezovich said when officers are hired they are required to go to the Academy and then 24 hours of yearly training, but they actually go through 40 hours of training. Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Page 2 of 8 Approved by Council: 11 -18 -08 Deputy Mayor Denenny said he agrees with the performance measures being both qualitative and quantitative and asked if the Sheriff thinks he can work with ICMA to get both aspects. Sheriff Knezovich said he thinks they can but it depends on the philosophy of ICMA. He said every six months the Sheriff's office looks at what they have done right, what they can improve and he gives a report to the agency reflecting the suggestions they come up with, then they actively go out to fix those aspects that can be improved. Mayor Munson asked if the Sheriff thinks they will be able to accelerate the development of the performance standards for the department. Sheriff Knezovich said yes, so long as we are working together toward the goal of making our agencies better rather than dividing them. He said they have to determine the true nature of the goal. He said if the goal is to improve performance they can get there but Council needs to realize the Sheriff's office has always been under staffed and it will take significant effort. on his agency's part to help speed up the process. City Manager Mercier pointed out that all presentation materials and the iCMA proposal are available on the wcbsite. He said he previously presented this information in July and it is about proactive attention. He said the nature of the study is to seek improvement and we are five years into this contracting relationship and both sides recognize a need to revise components of the current contract for services. He said Council has indicated the need for identifying performance measures not only in police services but in all operations of the City. Public safety has been a top priority in the community and it is important to determine the sustainable levels of funding for important city services. He said for nearly 100 years 1CMA has served as an information clearing house and technical assistance provider to communities across the country and across the world. He said the primary objective of the assessment is to present the City with an unbiased review of the positive and negative ramifications of renewing its contract with the Sheriff's Department. Mr. Mercier said Council identified 28 areas of inquiry and interest as listed on page 5 of the ICMA proposal. He said that as this work is conducted, we are inviting data analysis because policy makers need to be aware of the statistics occurring in the community, how activity for police services is cataloged, and that analysis of data must precede any decision making. One aspect of the proposal is to focus our understanding of what is happening today as a means to identify opportunities to reach further heights and continuous improvement is reflected throughout the proposal. The ICMA team is highly qualified and has field experience in policing, management, and statistical analysis. The proposed project deadline is March 1, 2009 for a preliminary report and a final report by April 1, 2009. He said they do not anticipate any interim reports, but there will be a conveyance of information back and forth and will be shared with Council so there will be no surprises. He said that the success of the proposal requires a partnership with the Sheriff's department as they are the keeper of the base statistics. Mayor Munson asked and City Manager Mercier confirmed that as we move forward the information will be shared with the Sheriffs office. He said the reporting will be on -going and continuous. He said the basic study analysis is $69,000 with a travel expense provision of $10,500. The 2008 cost for police services amounts to over $15 million and is 48% of the general fund budget. He said the cost of the assessment is less than 1% of the police budget. He said this study is proposed as a strategic investment as we have done with others, utilizing external consultants such as those used in developing the street master plan, the Sprague/Appleway Revitalization Plan and the City Center. He said the study should provide advice on how to achieve best practices in police services, identification of data - driven policing options, suggested contract revisions and recommended performance measures and strategic options. Councilmember Dempsey asked what other cities spend for police services. Mr. Mercier said that an internal assessment shows Spokane Valley ranked seventh in the state as to how much we spend. Councilmember Schimmels said there is a difference in the figure now proposed and asked if there is a budget line item for the expenditure. Mr. Mercier said there are resources in the budget for the study, explaining we would allocate the expense against the police department and if there were insufficient revenues at the end of the year, we would rely on the contingency fund in the general fund. Councilmember Schimmels asked if due diligence requires we ask for proposals rather than select a consultant. Mr. Mercier said most municipalities have a vender roster for various services that can be Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21-08 Page 3 of 8 Approved by Council: 11-18-08 utilized. ICMA Consulting is on our current vender roster and we can negotiate a contract with them. Mayor Munson invited public comment: Chuck Haffner, 4710 S. Woodruff said he is representing the Spokane Valley Business Association and residents of Spokane Valley. He said the consensus throughout the community is that this will be passed by council tonight. In past years he was the director of secondary schools for Central Valley School District. He said administrators and staff members are employed based on their educational background, life experiences and expertise. They are responsible for evaluating staff, assessing programs and providing leadership. This is similar to what has happened in our City. The City Council has hired a city manager who has the expertise to provide leadership for our city, evaluate personnel, and provide a vision to move the city forward, reflective of the wishes and needs of the community. Administration is made of key personnel who are well skilled in their areas of expertise and are very qualified. He said using an outside source for analysis seems to be ludicrous, that Spokane Valley has rated very well as far as reduction in crime and efficiency. He said the proposal was previously rejected by Council and he is against it.. Albert Fisher, 13808 E. Valley said his biggest problem with the proposal is he doesn't know why the City Council and the Sheriffs office can't negotiate a contract. He asked what we have gotten from studies that we have already had done and he said people of the Valley would be surprised by the amount of money spent on outside comments or suggestions. He said he thinks we have one of finest law enforcements there is and doesn't think it can be beat. Linda Fralic. 4836 S Pronress Court said she does not live in Spokane Valley but is a member of the Spokane County Traffic Safety Commission, GSAC, and SCOPE, and is here in support of SCOPE. She said she has ridden with officers and can see from their car computers where they are spending most of their time, primarily responding to domestic calls. SCOPE has gained national recognition for development of neighborhood watches, and through that they have trained the community on how they can help themselves to alleviate some problems police normally would respond to. She asks that Council seriously consider keeping SCOPE. Mayor Munson commented that the Council is made up of elected representatives of the city, they take the responsibility seriously and he looks at this process as being a fiduciary responsibility to make sure tax dollars are spent wisely, effectively, and efficiently. He said the idea of negotiating a contract is from a base of knowledge and this study will help achieve that. He said this will not be a closed process. The iCMA study will be a tool, as well as the information from the Sheriff's office and the study done by Councilmember Gothmann. He said he is supportive of the proposal and he does not believe SCOPE is an issue on the table. Councilmember Gothmann said the purpose of the study should be to establish an excellent working partnership with the Sheriff. He said he tried to develop data because none existed when the analysis was first proposed. He said one reason to do the study may be to develop our own police department, but no other study has indicated that would be a good use of money. Another reason would be to compare costs between contracting with the County or developing our own police force but no statistics indicate the cost would be less if we develop our own and he said he is convinced we would not find any data otherwise. Another reason would be if the Sheriff's office is not doing a good job, but he sees no statistics that show they are doing a bad job. Another reason would be because we have never done it before, but he said that is not good rationale. He said the real question is whether it is necessary and he does not want to spend the Sheriff's money. Another would be the need to develop goals but he said this is the responsibility of Council, the community and management. He said we pay over $300,000 a year to managers and their job is to establish goals. He said another reason would be that. 1 -900 demands it; however, that is not true. Based on all these reasons, he says he does not think Council should spend the money for the analysis; however, should Council decide to do it, he said he does not think it is a bad thing and he will support it. Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Page 4 of 8 Approved by Council: 11 -18 -08 Councilmember Taylor said Ile supports the study even though it was amended from the original proposal which was to look at alternatives, saying that without the alternatives it is hard to negotiate a contract in a position favorable for negotiation because it is best to negotiate from a position of strength. He said with regard to the statement that the motives of the study are "politically based," as someone elected to the Council his motivation is politically based and he has made a commitment to Spokane Valley to operate the city from the standpoint of incorporating best practices and continuous improvement, He said they started as a contract city and have been innovative and successful as such, but that does not mean we don't assess our programs or progress. I-le said he. is accountable to the people who elected him anti it is important to go through s+rith the study. He said this study will hopefully cement the relationship formed with the Sheriff's office and will hopefully lead to some solutions where there are now dirnculties with how the contract is being administered. He said this study has nothing to do with the officers on the street or the volunteers through SCOPE and that as a tax collecting and tax. spending entity we need to ensure Spokane Valley is getting the best bang for our buck. He said he believes all administrators in the Sheriff's department and Spokane Valley arc moving toward the coal of best management and efficient use of taxpayer resources and this study will solidify that. Councilrncrriber Wilhite said she appreciates the work Councilmember Gothmann has done and the data he has provided, but now she thinks that should be analyzed and we should work toward the goal of having a closer working relationship and partnership with the SheriEPs office. She said there is a benefit to us to have accreditation for the Sheriff's department so we continue to receive national recognition that continues to show the great job the Spokane region is doing in providing police services to our citizens_ She said she thinks the money will be well spent because we need to have thorough analysis and it will help us to have a better partnership v,rith the Sheriff's department. Mayor Munson invited Leonard Matarese, Director of Public Safety Services for ICMA Consulting to speak. Mr. Matarese said ICMA Consulting helps city officials understand the details they need in order to make good policy decisions. He said conducting an analysis is common and it does not mean the City thinks the Sheriff's office is doing a bad job, but rather brings an unbiased approach to the analysis to find areas of improvement_ I-Ie said it can not be done without the Sheriff's cooperation and the cost for the study is Tess than the cost for on officer For one year. Councilmeinber Gothmann asked if ICMA Consulting has experience vsrorking with entities with contractual police services. Mr. Matarese said iCiviA was one of the Icaders in identifying the concept of a "contract city." He said the decision for whether or not to contract for police services needs to be invade on a local need basis and not based on national standards_ ] -Ie said part of the study will identify precisely where time allocations are spent and then it becomes a policy decision on the part of Council to choose how much time the officers spend doing preventative activities and whether we are willing to pay For that. City Manager Mercier added the study will include police contracts between Pierce County and King County and the Washington cities with which they contract. Vote by acclamation. In favor_' Mayor .Munson, Deputy Mayor Denenny, Oouncilrnernber Tcrvlor, GOUncihnember Wilhite. Opposed, Councilmember Dempsey, C.'ouncilmernber Gothmann, Co: ucilrncmber Schimmels. Abstentions. None. Motion carries four to three. la. Mayoral Appointment: Lod2ina Tax Advisory Committee — Mayor Munson it was moved by Cowncrlmeruber Taylor and seconded, to confirm the _Mayoral appointment change of Councilmember Wilhite to the Lodging Tar Advisory Committee in place of Courtcihnentber Gothmann f o r the remainder o f the year. Councilmember Gothnnann said he thinks Councilmember Wilhite w i l l do a great job and is in favor of her taking his place. Vote by acclamation_ In favor. Unanimous. Opposed: Norit. Abstentions; None. Arfotion carried. Mayor Munson called for a recess at 7:45 p.m. He reconvened the meeting at S_00 p.m. Study Session .tociing Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Approved by CotEncil: 11-18-08 I'age5of REGULAR STUDY SESSION ITEMS: 2. City Center /City Hall Update — Neil Kersten Public Works Director Kersten said consultants Bernardo Wells and GGLO have been working on concepts for the location of the City Hall site. Originally the plan was to have City Hall on the west side of the City Center plan. Because City Hall will not be located there now, they looked at the cost of moving Dartmouth and found it would save money if they leave Dartmouth and look at moving City Hall into the southern location as shown in Option A of the presentation. He said this leaves the original City Center concept with traffic coning in directly off Sprague, leaves Dartmouth where it is currently located which gives indirect access off Appleway and direct access off Sprague. He said the site for City Hall in this location is thin with not much frontage on Appleway and is somewhat constrained. They then looked at expanding the open space in front of City Hall more toward the center of the City core with the main access still off Sprague giving a larger area off the City Center core with a landscape design for larger functions. Next they looked at moving City Hall to the location shown in Option DI, giving more direct access off Sprague and Appleway and utilizing existing road and access, and offering more usable space. The site is reduced but still very large and gives a lot of options. He said the City Hall site is decreased but retail space is increased. The site gives many options as to where to place the building for visibility and it has a lot of flexibility. Mayor Munson asked if we still have funds for site planning. M.r. Kersten said there are still funds available from prior Council approval. City Manager Mercier asked that if Council has a preference for the location of City Hall they give direction for staff to proceed. He also said the potential for reconfiguration of City Hall and the policy consideration of adding an additional retail opportunity on the north side of Applcway will require a future regulatory change. Councilmembers Gothmann and Dempsey said they both like option DI. Deputy Mayor Denenny said he likes that option D1 provides more options for retail. Councilmember Taylor said he thinks this option is an efficient use of the existing infrastructure and likes having City Hall in proximity to the current buildings already there: grocery, retail and restaurants. Mr. Kersten said he anticipates presenting different concepts to Council by December and have the completed design by February. He said the design work would be contracted to GGLO and the original cost estimate was S70,000 for road design but due to additional streets and utilities the cost for street design has increased. It was the consensus of Council to proceed with option DI and place authorization of $40,000 Pr additional street design on the consent agenda next Tuesday with the understanding it can be pulled off the consent agenda if anyone would like to discuss it further. 3. Sprague / Appleway Revitalization Plan Book 11, Development Ret!ulalions — Scott Kuhta Mayor Munson asked if Councilmembers were ready to discuss the direction of Sprague Avenue tonight, and they all agreed they were ready. Senior Planner Kuhta recommended they continue with non- conforming use and wait until October 28 to discuss transportation issues in Book 111. Mr. Kuhta discussed the October 21, 2008 memo regarding Sprague and Appleway Corridors Subarea Plan Deliberations Information. He said with regard to insurance on non - conforming structures, there is no apparent issue with insurance rates being higher on non - conforming structures. If a non - conforming structure is completely destroyed, the insurance company will cover the cost of reconstruction. if the owner decides not to rebuild, the insurance company will pay a settlement based on the actual cash value of the building which is determined by the cost less depreciation, which is determined by the age and condition of the building. He said if it is a non - conforming use and if more than 80% of the building is destroyed, they cannot reestablish that use on that site and, they would have to put it in a zone where that particular use is allowed based on current non- conforming provisions. Mayor Munson said the question is whether they want to maintain that provision. Councilmember Taylor said he does not like the current provision. He said new construction should have to meet the design but should not take away the use caused by destruction. Mayor Munson asked if we allow non - conforming use to be rebuilt what would it do to other non - conforming uses within the City? Councilmember Taylor said that is what he is proposing. in the instance of an involuntary destruction of a property, they would be able to continue that non - conforming use just as if it had not been involuntarily destroyed. Mayor Munson added so long as it Study Session Mccting Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Page 6 of 8 Approved by Council: 11 -18-08 meets the architectural and set -back standards. Mr. Mercier said it is a common ingredient in every municipality he's been associated with to have a non - conforming use requirement and the antecedent to that rule is elected officials recognize conditions within communities change over time and periodically revisions are made to zoning. Mr. Kuhta said the other option is for the business to relocate to the appropriate one and rebuild there. Deputy Attorney Driskell said they will need to look at the legality of having differing non - conforming conditions in different parts of the city. Deputy Mayor Denenny asked for an analysis as to how other municipalities handle the provisions of non - conforming use and the destruction of a business. Councilmember Taylor asked if this is a new provision Council adopted or if it was inherited from the County. Mr. Kuhta said we made the provision more restrictive when we adopted the UDC. He said he thinks the plan inherited from the County allowed rebuilding/replacement of the non - conforming use. Councilmember Taylor said originally Council was presented with a different non- conforming use provision for this plan that was different from what our UDC was. There were some issues with it, City Attorney Connelly looked at those issues and came back with some amendments and one of those was to take the UDC currently adopted non - conforming use provisions and make it the plan's non - conforming use provisions making it cleaner. He said that is how this happened and now they have amendments that have been made and they need to decide how they want to deal with non- conforming use so they need to find the best way to move forward and be consistent with the plan and the code. Mr. Mercier said they will need to decide if they will allow reinstitution of what has been determined a non - conforming use under those circumstances and in doing so they will have eliminated the nature of it being a non - conforming use. What they are really saying is that it has non - conforming architectural standards. Councilmember Gothmann said it would still be a non - conforming use until it is sold for a different use. Mayor Munson said he has concerns with changing the non - conforming provisions for the entire city because of timing. Councilmember Taylor said it is a UDC change, not a Comp Plan change, so it can be clone at any time. ivir. Kuhta said it will not slow the process of this plan, because the language in this plan refers to the non- conforming issues of the UDC so this plan can be adopted and the issues of non - conforming use in the UDC can be discussed later. It was moved by Councilmember Taylor and seconded, to extend the meeting to 9:30 p.m. In favor: Manor Munson, Deputy Mayor Denenny, Councilmembers Gothmann and Taylor. Opposed. Cozntcilmemhers Dempsey, Schnnmels, and Wilhite. Abstentions: atone. Motion carried. Mr. Kuhta continued with the memo and said the impact of proposed regulations is difficult to answer due to the variables impacting the cost of development. He said he contacted Bob Bengford, Consulting Planner and Urban Designer with Markers •Architecture and Joe Stoy, Design Manager for Baker Construction and both agreed that design standards can add between 0 and 5% to the cost of construction. Mr. Kuhta said Council asked him to find out the cost for a City Center video simulation and he contacted Donald Ncwlands of Newlands and Company who said the cost was about $20,000. He said we can figure on $10,000 per thirty seconds, depending on the complexity and layers involved. Mr. Kuhta said he thinks a photo simulation of what the City Center would look like as well as the rest of Sprague may be interesting for citizens to see and he said Community Development can come up with proposals if Council would like them to proceed. Mayor Munson said he would like to see proposals. Councilmember Taylor said he is not ready for that yet. Deputy Mayor Denenny said he would like to come back to the discussion of video simulation after they have made decisions in other areas. There was Council consensus to hold off on video simulation discussion. Mr. Kuhta said previously Council discussed how to apply regulations to new construction, additions and reconstruction of buildings and the desire of Council was to maintain regulations as proposed for the City Center. For clarification, he identified the area of the City Center district zone as the area bordered by Main and Fourth from Walnut to Bowdish. He said the regulations would apply to new construction, additions greater than 20% of the building floor area, and exterior improvements costing more than 20% Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21 -08 Page 7 of 8 Approved by Council: 11 -18 -08 of the assessed or appraised value of the building and land and shall conform to architectural regulations. In all other district zones, regulations shall apply to new construction and exterior improvements costing more than 20% of the assessed or appraised value of the building and land. He said they took out the issue of additions greater than 20% of the building floor area and added a new definition for New Construction. New Construction is defined as an entirely new structure or the reconstruction, remodel, rehabilitation or expansion of the building costing more than 50% of the assessed or appraised value of the existing structure. Mayor Munson asked why land was not included. Mr. Kuhta said there was no reason for not including land and it is the up to Council to decide if they want to include it. Councilmember Gothmann suggested that paragraph three apply to the City Center zone only and in paragraph two they define new construction as an entirely new structure or reconstruction. Councilmember Taylor suggested they include the value of the land with the building and apply to both. Mr. Kuhta said they would need to have a public hearing to deal with any changes Council makes. There was Council consensus 10 change the definition of new construction to include the value of the kind Mayor Munson said they have a dynamic plan and once they are done they will likely make several changes but he said we need a dynamic approach, Mayor Munson recommended and it was unanimously agreed to adjourn. 4. Advance Agenda — Mayor Munson: Item Was not discussed. 5. Council Check -in — Mayor Munson: Item was not discussed. 6. City Manager Comments — Dave Mercier: Item was not discussed Mayor Munson adjourned the meeting at 9:25 p.m. ATTEST: z Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Study Session Meeting Minutes: 10 -21-08 Page 8 of 8 Approved by Council: 11 -18 -08 (� NAME CQF r 4S , . R ! ' tlIIa`11it IMINg go111 n . , " ADDRESS TELEPHONE CP34 -0 L1 ∎{ . .// / .cSfi e b l - l l 0 S .S 0-0-11 J /3146'easwcy w 9,2 ,s -&y r. 6$ 5 ? 87 Vt U 2 A A vacci 1 c0 I Zo W . t q22- SIGN -IN SHEET SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: October 21, 2008 CITIZEN COMMENTS YOUR SPEAKING TIME WILL BE LIMITED TO THREE MINUTES To: Spokane Valley City Council From: Spokane Valley Business Association Chuck Hafner, Community Representative Re: Law Enforcement Assessment Date: 10/21/08 Dear Council Members: 1 wish to emphasize to you die following concerns that, hopefully, as a representative of and for the residents of the City of Spokane Valley, will consider before you vote on the funding for the Law Enforcement Assessment. The general consensus, throughout the community, is that a decision has already been determined, behind close doors, and the vote will be 4 to 3 in favor of authorizing this measure. I am sure that is not the case. In past years, as the Director of Secondary Education for the Central Valley School District, I was responsible for seven secondary schools. The schools were administered by supervisors and were responsible for the welfare and safety of over 500 staff members and 5000 students. This component was all under my umbrella. Administrators and staff members were all employed based on their educational background, life experiences and expertise. They were responsible for evaluating staff, to assess programs and to provide leadership in all areas relating to the policies set forth by the School Board. What I have just described is somewhat identical to what happens in our City. The City Council has hired a City Manager, Dave Mercier, who has the expertise to provide leadership for our City, evaluate personnel, to provide assessment techniques to staff, and to recruit the best personnel possible, and to provide a vision to move our city forward, in a positive manner, knowing that this vision is reflective of the wishes and needs of'this community. Our City administrative staff includes major personnel, such as an assistant City Manager, a Public Inforrnation Officer, a City Attorney, an Assistant Attorney, and a Police Chief. Again, all of these people are well skilled in their particular areas of expertise. We also have Directors for Community Development, Finance, Parks and Recreation and Public Works. All these people were employed based on their skills, knowledge and expertise. All of the above personnel, under the direction of Mr. Mercier, are very good at their positions and very qualified. They are very professional. /T• With all the skills that we have on our staff, it is hard for us, people in the community, to understand, why this assessment, if approved, is being contracted out to an outside source? A firm that Mr. Mercier is a member. Are the present city staff members not qualified to do the assessment? Many of us feel that the City Manager, with his staff, have all the necessary tools, expertise, know -how to do this assessment in- house. Especially if Mr. Mercier utilizes the present law- enforcement agencies that are available as a resource. Which would include our own Spokane Valley Police Chief Our economy is in a downturn. To spend approx. $125,000 for an assessment that is not needed seems to be ludicrous. Why? All indicators relating to the effectiveness and efficiency of the Spokane Valley City Police Department have been very good. We were rated second in crime reduction and fourth in crime rate -- -based and compared with the 20 largest cities in the state of Washington. Previously, this proposal was rejected on a 4 to 3 basis. Why are we, again, bringing this up for a vote? With all the qualified personnel within our own city government, with our very good crime rating, why are we going to spend approx. $125,000 for an outside consulting firm?